The Indonesian police will deploy 8,617 personnel to secure logistics distribution and voting locations in West Papua. Papua Province Police Chief Inspector General Mathius D. Fakhiri said that as many as 2,000 police personnel would later be shifted to strengthen the police ranks or those within the jurisdiction of the Papua Province Police.

“Of course, I have prepared a back up for this strengthening, I have prepared 2,000 police from the Papua Provincial Police, we will shift them to the district police,” said Mathius. Furthermore, he also mentioned that he had received an additional 700 personnel from the Indonesian military. Apart from that, an additional 600 new non-commissioned officers will be alerted in district police with low levels of vulnerability.

“I also received additional backup reinforcements yesterday, around 600 after our new non-commissioned officers specifically for non-vulnerable police ranks,” he added. Then, the two-star police general said that currently election logistics have arrived in four provinces, namely, Papua, Papua Mountains, Central Papua and South Papua.

He asked his staff to carry out careful checks on the distribution of election logistics before the voting event begins in about two weeks. “I asked because in the last 2 weeks, to really look at and check the election logistics, whether everything has been distributed to the regions,” he concluded. Meanwhile, Mathius also appealed to the local Indonesian General Election Commissions chairman not to force voting in vulnerable areas for the benefit of officers and the public.